Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 25 October 2017 - Strasbourg

Negotiating mandate for trade negotiations with Australia - Negotiating mandate for trade negotiations with New Zealand (debate)

  David Martin (S&D). – Mr President, this for me is a bittersweet moment. I have argued in this Parliament for over 20 years for free trade agreements with Australia and with New Zealand, and they have finally arrived. Negotiations are about to begin, and by the time these negotiations are complete, I am afraid that my country will no longer be part of the European Union and thus unable to take advantage of the free trade agreement.

It is also a bittersweet moment though because the Committee on International Trade – of all committees – has, in my opinion, produced quite a protectionist resolution, and I hope we can amend some of that tomorrow. It is quite right, as colleagues have said, that we should want to defend certain sensitive products, make sure we have quotas on certain products, and make sure we negotiate safeguards for certain products, but to ask for a whole sector to be excluded from negotiations is a crazy way to begin negotiations, especially if that sector is the key sector for our negotiating partners. Why would the Australians or the New Zealanders make concessions to us on GIs, on non-agricultural market access or on sustainable development, which is so important to my group, if we are not even prepared to start talking about agriculture? It is a cloud—cuckooland position to have.

(Applause.)